This invention relates to hand carts and, more particularly, to a hand cart combined with a beach chair specially designed for transporting beach articles to and from the beach. By attaching a beach chair to the cart, a large number of beach type articles can be carried to the beach and back with ease.
Hand carts are used in general for moving articles or materials from one place to another that are not otherwise easily transportable. Most carts are designed for a particular task, although some carts are for general purposes. Carts have been designed to carry luggage, furniture, plywood and piping. In addition, carts have been designed to be collapsible and portable so as to ease the transport of the cart itself. While some of these carts may be adapted to be used for carrying beach type articles to and from the beach, none discloses all the advantages of the instant invention including the high capacity of the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,073, for example, to Wander discloses a hand truck having a triangularly shaped body, formed by elongated rods used for transporting heavy flat articles. The Wander hand truck includes a perpendicularly extending toe extending from a plate which extends from and is attached to the bottom of the hand truck. The orientation, however, of the wheels of the Wander invention is different from that of the instant invention. The Wander hand truck has only one wheel which is arranged parallel to the triangularly shaped main body structure. Because of the one thin wheel and the lack of any body structure for engaging a beach chair for increasing the capacity of the cart, the Wander invention is not conducive for use in carrying beach articles to and from the beach.
U.S. Pat. No. D281,112 to Nichols discloses a cart for a bowling ball bag. The Nichols cart consists of a triangularly shaped handle, an elongated vertical rod and a horizontally extending base plate having a perpendicularly extending toe. The Nichols cart has two wheels, one on each side of the base plate. The cart is adapted to carry a bowling bag by placing the toe under the bag and rolling the cart at an angular orientation. While the cart does have two wide wheels, it lacks the body for engaging a beach chair as in the instant invention.
U.S. Pat. No. D302,959 to Turlington, Jr. discloses an invalid carrying beach chair. The Turlington invention is substantially a hand drawn carriage for transporting an invalid. The cart comprises a substantially horizontally extending trailer having two large wheels, an axle and two elongated grasping members for pulling the cart. In addition, a lounge type beach chair is permanently attached to the upper portion of the horizontally extending carriage for supporting a person. Accordingly, the person is placed into the chair and the carriage can be drawn by hand or otherwise to the destination. While the Turlington invention can be adapted to carry articles to and from the beach, it is directed mainly towards the carrying of a disabled person. As such, the carriage is of much greater size and weight than the instant invention and cannot be easily broken down and stored as with the instant invention.
In addition to the foregoing, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,759,559 to Moulton, D 172,026 to Hoye, D 208,770 to Curtis, 4,426,099 to Gross and, finally, 3,180,507 to Ott et al. disclose hand carts or supports having substantially triangularly shaped bodies. In addition, each of these carts has a perpendicularly extending lower toe for supporting the article for which it was made to carry. However, each of the carts disclosed in these patents lacks at least one important feature of the instant invention. Accordingly, the size and orientation of the wheels, the lack of the ability of the toe to engage a beach chair leg, the lack of the triangularly shaped frame having the capacity to engage a beach chair and the lack of a beach chair are examples of the shortcomings.